Appropriating the Weather

Abstract

In this book, Robert Marc Friedman analyzes the revolution in the theory and practice of meteorology during the first quarter of the twentieth century, initiated by Vilhelm Bjerknes (1862-1951) and his collaborators. In contrast to the approach that had dominated meteorology since the late nineteenth century, their weather models and forecasting techniques marked a decisive turn to a dynamical-physical understanding of the atmosphere. Using a wide range of sources, both published and unpublished, Friedman traces the emergence of the new, so-called Bergen methodology and the process by which it transformed first Norwegian and then worldwide weather forecasting.The establishment of the new meteorology, he argues, was the result of a complaex interaction of scientific, social, and technological factors, and he gives special emphasis to the way in which Bjerknes adapted his mechanical physics of the atmosphere to benefit commercial purposes.

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